Geneva: High Commissioner meets with Gerardo's wife
News from Cuba | Thursday, 8 March 2012
The High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, today received Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo, one of the Cuban Five anti-terrorists, unjustly imprisoned in the United States.
In the meeting, Adriana mentioned the suffering that almost 14 years of prison have represented for the Five and their families, to live separated for so much time and with limitations of all kinds.
The wife of Gerardo spoke to the High Commissioner of the need for that organization to intercede directly in favor of the motion solicited by René González's attorney, for permission to travel to Cuba to visit his brother, who is gravely ill. She also conveyed the desire of reunification of the elderly mothers of the Five who are still alive.
Geneva, Mar 6 (Prensa Latina) Adriana Perez, the wife of one of the five anti-terrorist Cuban fighters unfairly held in the United States, on Tuesday denounced before the UN Human Rights Council the illegalities committed in this case.
In an intensive dialogue with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Perez recalled that the Group already declared itself against the imprisonment of Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez.
Although almost seven years have passed since the Working Group ruled arbitrary the imprisonment of The Cuban Five, the US government has yet to comply with it, said the wife of Gerardo, whose visa application has been repeatedly refused by Washington.
"I would like this to be the last time I let my voice be heard in this plenary to denounce the violations committed against our relatives and demand their return home," she said.
Fourteen years would have gone by since the start of an unfair, painful proceeding, lacking the least credibility in the US judicial system.
Adriana Perez referred to the situation of Rene Gonzalez, who has been forced to remain in US territory, with great risk for his life, subject to an absurd supervised release regime, despite having served his sentence.
She denounced before the UN Human Rights Council that Rene has been denied temporary permission to visit his brother, seriously ill in Havana.
US President Barack Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has in his hands the release of these five Cubans who have sacrificed the best of their youth for the noble cause of defending life, she added.
She said that a lack of political will and ethics prevents today the Obama Administration from making a humanitarian gesture to put an end to such sorrow, ignoring the demands made by numerous organizations and notables worldwide who have declared themselves for the release of The Cuban Five.
"They are hostages of an absurd, absolutely anachronistic policy applied for over fifty years against our country," she denounced.
Also today, Adriana Perez was received by Gabriela Guzman, Assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, to whom she explained how this injustice is affecting directly The Cuban Five's mothers, wives, children and other relatives.
Adriana demanded that, in line with her mandate and based on elements of the case, the Rapporteur urge the US government to give a final solution on the granting of visas unconditionally, without any restriction.
She reaffirmed before the UN body the need to intercede with the US government so that Rene is allowed to travel to Cuba temporarily to visit his brother.
